Other Plans

When I was living a life of much misery I finally gave up and asked God to help me to change, to be rid of misery.  Well, God did.  Now my goal back then was all about me.  I was quite selfish at the time, so my motives for change had to be self-serving.  God seems to have accepted that, but then I found out God had another plan as well.  I came to realize that my change for the better was not so that I could be happy, but so that I could be helpful to others who were miserable as I had been.  For that matter, I look back on my motive for becoming a priest.  I wanted to save my soul, and I seem to be an all or nothing guy!  God wanted me to be of some use to others.  Do that and my soul would be fine.  If in the beginning of all this God had said change to be helpful I would never have changed.  God takes us where we are, be it gutters or penthouses.